Ask me anything about community building
I am Kaustubh Katdare; and I have been into community building before it was cool to build a community.
I founded CrazyEngineers back in 2005 and grew it to over 430K members from over 180 countries.
I've also advised several community builders with their community growth strategy. In my current role, I'm heading growth for a high-growth startup.
If you need help with your community strategy, I am here to help.
I had done a similar thread last year and it received an overwhelming response.
This time, I wish to make it more personalised.
If you have a community or looking to start a new; I am available for help. Fill up this form - https://forms.gle/RtZGDhG4ucm2TFgt8
Don't hold back. AMA about communities.
PS:
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Responses will be on first come, first serve basis; limited to one per day.
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Feel free to connect with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.
What platforms are you most active on? (Discord, Slack, X, etc)
What platforms have you been the most successful on?
What platforms do you think will dominate in the future?
I'm most active on Instagram and Pinterest, as they’re highly visual platforms—perfect for sharing interior design ideas and projects.
At smithinteriors, we’ve seen the most success on Instagram. It’s helped us showcase our work, connect with potential clients, and build a strong brand presence. Pinterest has also been great for long-term traffic, especially through high-quality visuals that continue to circulate over time.
Looking ahead, I believe Threads and YouTube Shorts will play a major role, especially as short-form and visual content continues to dominate user preferences.
How do you enhance community engagement? Do you primarily focus on engaging with key participants, or do you have strategies in place that involve the entire community?
@Edgeframe: There are several ways to engage with your community; and it's decided mostly by the central theme of your community.
For example, my strategy to engage with a SaaS support community would be different from a course community.
In the initial days of building a community, I'd focus on building personal bonds with my community members. I'd engage with them over email, video conference, chats etc. These are the pillars of your community and you need to build a bond with them.
Community is built one member at a time. Typically it's the founder or the admin's responsibility to bring people together.
The support and maintaintment team. What can you say about that?
Tnx a lot
Could you elaborate on your question, please? The support and maintenance teams are crucial; but you can't depend upon them for community building. Their only job is to keep the community available to everyone; and ensure that it's spam free.
I meant if the quality and time to ection for respond the users could be a major problem in a speciphic point.
Yeah, it is. For each community I built; I replied to every new thread within 1-2 hours max. It was painful; but it helped me drive the initial engagement. As I said, I built personal relations with my early members. People I met 17 years ago online; are still friends.
Quality is not an option. You've got to take the discussion forward and treat people with respect. Appreciate them for their contribution to the community.It need not be a public appreciation every time; just a DM would work.
For a SaaS support community I'm growing; we keep our response time to under 1 hour. Even if it's not a solution to the problem posted; the feeling that there's a 'human' who's acknowledged your question and assured help makes people stick to the community.
I have always thought that at the beginning a couple as a team is ideal. The technical member doing his job and the communications partner. But it is very difficult for most. Perhaps AI will come to solve this problem, among other crucial things.
Hey! I see why you're suscesful and I give to you my congrats. Thank you so much for sharing this and your time.
How do you keep the community relevant as time goes on?
Oh wow! Good that you asked this question.
I've struggled with this. The only way out is to build a culture over a period of time and treat it with top priority. Old members will become inactive and new members will join. The culture and an encouraging environment is what will keep them on the community.
Content is an integral part of your community; and make sure that it serves the prime interest of your community.
Also, do not outsource community building. It's your community and it will grow with you.
What is the role of content in building a community?
All the communities I've built are all content driven. A community with solid, relevant content can skyrocket your community's growth and engagement. It can also make your community self-sustaining and bring new members to your community organically.
During the initial days of CrazyEngineers; the community I built; I solely focused on creating unique and interesting content. Some of the content I wrote 12 years ago still drives traffic and new members.
Submitted the form :) Looking fwd to getting in touch with you.
Thank you. I have already replied to you.
One of the common questions I get is how do you get your first few users. The answer is not very straightforward; because it depends upon the kind of community you are building and its target users.
I am currently building a community for a SaaS business; and the approach we took was purely SEO-oriented. It's a community meant primarily to serve the customers better and engage potential users.
We began by eliminating all distractions and being razor focused on the helpful content. It meant building discussions about most common problems faced by users. We sourced those questions from existing communities on reddit and quora; and then offered very detailed responses.
It helped us establish authority in the segment and attract about 5 users organically per day. Yeah; it's a slow and painful process; but a very rewarding one.
Now the community attracts several hundred users a day and is transitioning into self-sustaining stage; within just about 14 months of setting up the domain.
I hope this is helpful.